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Thursday • June 25
Death sentence of Houston man upheld
AUSTIN (AP) — The death sentence
of a man convicted of raping and mur
dering a 7-year-old girl he abducted
from his neighborhood near Houston in
1995 was upheld two days ago by the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Eric Charles Nenno was convicted of
capital murder for the rape and stran
gling death of Nicole Benton in March
1995 in rural Hockley, about 30 miles
northwest of Houston.
As part of an automatic appeal to the
Court of Criminal Appeals, Nenno's at
torneys argued that the evidence was in
sufficient to show that Nenno would be
a future danger to society — one of the
issues a jury must consider before sen
tencing someone to death.
But the state's highest appeals court
for criminal cases disagreed.
Jurors in Nenno's case deliberated for
about 11 hours over two days before de
ciding on the death penalty rather than
a life prison term .
Nenno, a plumbing supply salesper
son, lived less than a block from the Ben
ton family in a subdivision.
According to trial testimony, neigh
borhood residents had been wary of
Nenno because he was said to have
grabbed a child and pulled down her
pants.
In his confession, Nenno told detec
tives he struggled most of his life with
urges to fondle young girls.
He said he managed to lure Nicole to
his home by suggesting that they re
trieve his guitar so he could join her fa
ther's band. Once inside his house, the
girl began to cry, and Nenno strangled
her to quiet the sobbing.
Nenno raped the girl twice after re
alizing he had killed her, according to
his confession.
Later, Nenno joined about 100 vol
unteers and law officers who searched
for Nicole and distributed thousands
of fliers and pink ribbons. At one point,
he suggested to investigators that a
man like himself might have abducted
the child.
Nenno eventually led police to
Nicole's body, which he had stashed in
his attic.
Murderer escapes from Huntsville
H U NTSVI LIE (AP) — A statewide
alert has been issued for a fugitive
murderer who apparently walked
away from his job as a trusty at the
prison system's hangar at Huntsville
Municipal Airport, a prison
spokesperson said yesterday.
Prison officials said Robert
James Hudspeth Jr., 47, may have
used an airport telephone to
arrange his escape.
Hudspeth was serving a life term
for a Travis County murder.
A local search had been called
off since it appeared Hudspeth was
no longer in the immediate area,
said David Nunnellee, a spokesper
son for the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice. Authorities in
Texas and nearby states have been
asked to be on the lookout for the
fugitive, he said.
Hudspeth was performing cus
todial work alone at the hangar on
Monday, with a guard periodically
checking on him as he worked, of
ficials have said.
Hudspeth, who had been
working a 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift at
the hangar, left a note that said he
had become ill and was returning
to the adjoining Wynne Unit,
Nunnelee said.
"The note was discovered by a
pilot arriving about 2 p.m.," Nun
nelee said.
Hudspeth was officially listed as
missing when he failed to appear
for a 7:30 p.m. head count at the
prison unit.
A ground search around the
airport and prison unit was
abandoned at 10 p.m. Monday,
Nunnelee said.
Hudspeth was convicted of mur
dering a 43-year-old Travis County
man by shooting him six times with
a .22-caliber pistol.
Hudspeth began serving his life
term in February 1981. He has been
a trusty and allowed to work off
prison grounds with minimum su
pervision for 10 years. He had a very
good record in prison with only one
reported infraction, possession of
contraband, Nunnelee said.
To qualify for trusty status,
which accelerates the rate at
which good time credit is ac
crued, inmates must pass scruti
ny by both unit and state-level
prison authorities.
Worldwide flight delays
caused by American
Airlines computer glich
FORT WORTH (AP) — American Airlines’
computerized reservation system experienced a
three-hour outage yesterday morning, causing
flight delays worldwide.
The airline’s passenger service system went
out around 6:35 a.m. and was back up by 9:45
a.m., American spokesperson Chris Chiames
said. The cause of the outage was unknown.
Airline employees processed passengers’
tickets manually at gates and ticket counters
and then calculated the weight and balance of
planes before take-off.
Chiames said that caused some flights to be
slightly late.
“Some were international flights that may
have run 15 to 20 minutes late,” he said. “There
weren’t enormous delays. If it ran over 15 min
utes, it wasn’t two hours.”
Seventy-six percent of flights out of Dallas-
Fort Worth International took off within 15
minutes of their scheduled departure, Chiames
said, as did 91 percent of flights out of Chica
go’s O’Hare.
Chiames said he had no figures on the num
ber of people and flights affected.
He said the airline was expected to be back on
schedule by Wednesday afternoon.
Feeding time
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Marci Streck, a first-year veterinary student, feeds deer at the Wildlife and Exoi
Center Wednesday. Streck volunteers twice a week for the experience with thei
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